*+-The country's largest life insurance provider announced it is selling its mortgage servicing portfolio to one of the country's biggest mortgage servicers. MetLife, Inc., announced an agreement to sell MetLife Bank, N.A.'s mortgage servicing portfolio to JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed, but MetLife revealed in a statement the portfolio is worth approximately $70 billion. As a result of the purchase, Chase's $1.1 trillion servicing business is expected to grow by more than 5 percent.

*+-If extremely severe economic conditions were to fall upon the U.S., 15 of the 19 banks tested by the Fed's stress scenario projections are said to be able to survive and continue to lend. The hypothetical stressful scenario included a 13 percent unemployment rate, 50 percent decline in equity prices, and a 20 percent decline in home prices. The scenario covers nine quarters into the fourth quarter of 2013, and the four banks that failed - Ally Financial, Citigroup, SunTrust, and MetLife - were said to have one or more projected regulatory capital ratios that fell below the 5 percent minimum levels at some point over the stress scenario horizon, according to the Fed.

*+-The third quarter of 2011 saw a net increase of 2,738 mortgage-related jobs, according to recent industry data. This increase is the first recorded in five quarters. The recent increase in refinances encouraged by remarkably low interest rates sparked a demand for loan originators and processors, while continuing high levels of delinquencies and foreclosures bolstered the need for servicing staff. The 2,738 gain compares to a net loss of 464 jobs in the previous quarter and a loss of 936 jobs a year ago.

*+-The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Federal Reserve, and the Office of Thrift Supervision announced formal enforcement actions Wednesday against 14 mortgage servicers and two firms that provide foreclosure-related services to the industry - LPS and MERS. The consent orders are the result of regulators' investigations into robo-signing allegations and represent a settlement with the firms involved, at least in part. Both the OCC and Fed say they believe monetary sanctions in these cases are also warranted, and they plan to pursue such actions separately.

*+-New data from federal regulators show that the nation's largest banks and thrifts repossessed nearly 187,000 homes during the third quarter of 2010. The number of foreclosures completed during the three-month period is up 57.5 percent from a year earlier.
The report shows that new foreclosures initiated also rose to more than 382,000. Although foreclosure activity increased during the quarter, servicers reported almost twice as many home retention actions as completed home forfeiture actions.

*+-More than a half million people worked in mortgage lending as of October 2005 -- the highest month on record. Five years later, fewer than half are left. Headcount in real estate finance fell by another thousand during the third quarter of this year, according to industry data released Monday.
During the July-September period, 3,216 layoffs were tracked while the number of new hirings fell to 2,286. North Carolina saw the largest net gain during the third quarter, with more than 500 mortgage sector jobs added there.